Key Features
- EF-Mount Lens/Full-Frame Format
- Aperture Range: f/1.2 to f/16
- One Aspherical Element
- Super Spectra Coating
MFR #
1257B002
Write Your Own Review
Top customer reviews
- UpdateAfter all the bologna I went through trying to buy this lens. I've had it for about a month now. It is worth what I went through to get it. When it finally arrived, it looks brand new. Not a mark on it. Now, the important part. It performs flawlessly. It is sharp, clear and crisp. The colors are right on. I do find that wide open I need a tripod when shooting handheld. It isn't the lenses fault. Something about the ageing process I hear a lot of these days. Worth the crazy price I paid for it.
- A specialist lensThis lens is a specialist lens, perhaps good for scientific applications but its size and weight as a 50mm lens makes it impractical as a standard lens. I decided to try this expensive lens as a replacement for my faulty 50/1.4 after the AF motor stopped working. Having used it for a month I am afraid to say that this is certainly the Canon lens that I am least satisfied with. With the 1.2L's powerful ring USM it should, in theory, focuses much faster than the 1.4's micro USM. In practice, the difference in AF speed is not that obvious at all, it seems to me that the more refined focusing distance ring (compared to the 1.4's) makes the 1.2L travels much farther to hunt from infinity to 0.45m. Also, the image quality improvement over the 1.4 (at comparable aperture setting) is only very slight. Its much bigger and heavier than the 1.4 so even that 1/2 stop aperture difference doesn't really help with hand-held shooting in the dark. In summary, I don't find any practical advantage for general purpose photography and considering the practicality and price difference I have decided to give the 50/1.4 another go. Having owned all three 50mm f/1.8 II, 1.4 and the 1.2L, I personally think the 1.4 offers best compromise in terms of image quality, practicality, price, and focusing performance.
- Awsome lensI love this lens so much it is great bokeh rules I would recommend this lens to anyone who loves quality pictures
- Followup to first reviewThis is a followup to my first review on July 7, 2009 titled Disappointment. I returned the 50mm f/1.2 lens that I had reviewed for a full refund. Several months later I purchased a second copy, which I am reviewing here. In the same manner as I had evaluated the first copy, I used the second copy with my 5D II for a day. I snapped about 400 images of my kids and objects inside and outside the house. What I liked about the 50/1.2 was a 1/2 stop light advantage over the 50/1.4, creamy bokeh, and less vignette than the 50/1.4 when shot wide open. The biggest problem with the second copy, which was the same problem I had with the first copy, was that autofocus was inaccurate. When I focused on a person's eyes, for example, something else would be in focus in front of or behind the person's eyes. Not all the time, but often enough, like about 30%. When I encountered these problems, I would immediately switch to the 50/1.4 and shoot the same settings and conditions. I didn't have any autofocus problems with the 50/1.4. And, the images that were in focus with the 50/1.2 generally weren't as sharp as those from the 50/1.4. I eventually returned the second 50/1.2 for a refund and decided that the 50/1.4 was good enough. For reference, the autofocus method I used was center point AF with recompose. Also, the 5D II camera I used has no autofocus problems with my other lenses, including the 85/1.2, 35/1.4, 24/1.4, 70-200/2.8 IS Mk II, etc.
- Not for the faint of heartI purchased the Canon EF 50mm f/1.2L to use on a 7D body for events where a flash is considered intrusive, but I find myself trying to use this lens anywhere I can now. This lens makes me money.
Related Products
Check items to add to the cart or
